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qualify for state meet
Alex Matson won the District Championship at 189 lbs. at the District I-II Wrestling meet Saturday, Feb. 21 at Kamiah and will lead a contingent of 5 Prairie wrestlers to the state meet at Pocatello this weekend. Also qualifying for state were Nick Uhlenkott at 145 lbs. and Shane Poxleitner at 130 lbs., who each placed second, and Anthony Duman at 112 lbs. and Logan Lustig at 171 lbs., who each placed fourth. Matson had to win just 2 matches to become district champion and won both by pin. He pinned William Kuhn of Kamiah in the second period of their match then pinned Eric Jackson of C.V., also in the second period, in the championship match. Matson wrestled at 189 lbs. because he didn’t make weight for 171, where he had wrestled most of the season. At 145 lbs., Uhlenkott had to face teammate Richard Sonnen in the first round and won by pin early in the first period. He then faced Eric McGreal of Potlatch and won a hard fought match, 9-7. In the championship match he faced Jeremiah Bunch, who he had defeated a week earlier at Grangeville. This time Bunch controlled the as Uhlenkott lost 4-11. At 130 lbs. Poxleitner got a first round bye then faced Scott Mays of Potlatch. Poxleitner dominated the action as he rolled to a 16-3 victory. In the championship match he faced Tyler Jackson of Kamiah who he had split with in their last two matches. This time Jackson scored the initial takedown and never trailed. Poxleitner was able to tie the score at 2-2 and 4-4 but wound up losing 6-8. At 112 lbs., Duman knew he was going to state once the bracket was posted as there were only 4 wrestlers in that weight class. In his first match he faced Tyler McGreal of Potlatch and lost in the first period by pin. In the consolation final he faced Dallas Hash, also of Potlatch, and lost by pin in the second period. At 171 lbs., Lustig had to win at least one match in the 5-man bracket and he faced Richard Parker of Potlatch in the bracket’s only opening round match. Parker led Lustig 2-3 after the first period but Lustig got Parker on his back in the second period and won by pin. In the second round he faced eventual district champion Cody Holibaugh of Orofino and lost by pin in the first period. He then faced Chris Griffin of Wallace in the consolation final and fell behind 0-11 after two periods. He started the third period in the down position and got a reversal and then a near fall, but couldn’t get the pin he needed to win and wound up losing 5-12. At 152 lbs., Cody Gehring came up one win short of qualifying for state. He faced Cody Newby of Grangeville in the first round and lost by pin in the first round. In the consolation bracket he faced teammate Roscoe Arnzen and won by pin in the first period. He then faced Tony Heidt of Wallace with the winner qualifying for state. Heidt won by pin in the second period. Also at 152 lbs., Arnzen lost by technical fall, 0-17, to Carl Salisbury of Grangeville in the first round before being eliminated by Gehring. At 145 lbs., Sonnen faced Jay Moore of Kamiah after losing to Uhlenkott in the first round. Sonnen got off to a good start, scoring a takedown to open the scoring but Moore came back to win by pin in the second period.
First round state matchups The state wrestling brackets have been released and are available at www.idhsaa.org if you have Adobe Acrobat to view the .pdf files. Once the tournament starts you can track their progress at www.idahosports.com. For Prairie, at 112 lbs., Tony Duman will face Jesse Coats of Valley in his first round matchup. Duman takes a 2-21 record into the tournament while Coats is 19-12 on the season. At 130 lbs. Shane Poxleitner takes a 20-6 record into the tournament will face Hagen Beckstead of Grace, 18-10, in the first round. At 145 lbs., Nick Uhlenkott takes a 22-5 record into state and will face James Pollock of New Plymouth in the opening round. Pollock is 14-13. At 171 lbs., Logan Lustig has a 16-6 record and faces the #1 seed, Tyrel Clark of North Fremont, who is 30-6, in the first round. At 189 lbs., Alex Matson takes an 11-8 record into state and will face Brandon McKinlay of Firth in the opening round. McKinlay is 8-8 on the season. The first round matches start Thursday, Feb. 26 at 3:30 p.m. at Holt Arena in Pocatello. The first consolation bracket matches start at 8:30 p.m. Thursday evening. Action continues Friday at 10:30 with winners’ bracket matches with second round consolation bracket matches starting at 3 p.m. Starting at 6 p.m. Friday evening are consolation quarterfinal matches with winners’ bracket semifinals to start at 7:30 p.m. At 9 a.m. Saturday are the consolation semifinals with the 5th place and consolation finals matches to start at 11:15 a.m. Championship finals start at 2:30 p.m. Junior high wrestlers bring home 4 medals On Saturday February 21st at Jennifer Jr. High the 7th and 8th grade  Cottonwood
Wrestlers competed in a wrestling jamboree. James Jackson brought home
a bronze medal for his 98 lbs weight class. Michel Matson brought home
a silver medal in his 105 lbs weight division. Ronald George brought
home a bronze medal in his weight division of 110lbs. and Jason Von Bargen
brought home a bronze medal in his weight division of 130lbs. These 7th
And 8th grade boys competed against several other opponents in their weight
divisions. There was 10 other Jr. High schools there at the jamboree. There
was a lot of fun and laughter involved in this tournament. With big thanks
to Stacy Jackson for providing the big pizza party afterwards. |
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